PAPA People Assisting Parents Association © 2007

1. According to the findings of "2006 B.C. Budget" published by a Vancouver accounting firm in February 2006, each removed child cost taxpayers $65,000 per year on program delivery alone in 2001 (ie. fees paid to foster parents, counseling, psychologists, day care centres). The costs will increase substantially if legal costs of opposing parties, court and police expenses in attending to "child protection" matters are included.


2. Based on information obtained through the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, foster parenting is a 9-figure industry in British Columbia each year.


3. Error processing SSI file
   
4. Federal government created the following tax and financial incentives to remove children:

   Children's Special Allowances (CSA, a tax-free monthly federal payment made to agencies, institutions and foster parents who are responsible for the care and education of children under 18 who physically reside in Canada and who are not in the care of their parents) as governed by the Children’s Special Allowances Act (1992, c. 48, Sch.). To special interests in the "child protection" and the adoption industry, this is one of the main sources where the big money comes from.

   According to the figures provided by Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat in Table 2.1 below, CSA payments are in 9-digit figures and are rising every year. CSA is also a financial incentive for provincial "child protection" agencies to remove children from their parents and keep them in government sponsored foster/group homes as long as possible.

   The 2011 federal budget announced on 6 June 2011 stipulates that for 2012 and subsequent years, the payment of a CSA to an agency (such as MCFD) in respect of a child who is a former Crown ward and who has been placed in the custody of a legal guardian, tutor (in Quebec) or a similar caregiver and the agency provides financial assistance for the maintenance of the child. This Budget would ensure that an agency receives the CSA in respect of a child that it continues to financially support even if the child has been released to the care of a court-appointed guardian, tutor or similar caregiver.

   This extended payment of CSA will further create financial incentive to remove and adopt children.

5. Child protection and the adoption industries are very lucrative to some special interest groups. Error processing SSI file
   



6. According to MCFD's news release dated January 9, 2009, the budget for British Columbia’s Child and Youth Mental Health (CYMH) Plan was doubled over the last several years to $84 million annually. Almost 300 new staff were hired across the province. Nearly 20,000 B.C. children and youth receive MCFD outpatient and community mental health services annually – almost double the number that received services in 2004. As usual, opposition NDP Critics Ms. Jenny Kwan, MLA immediately criticized the B.C. Liberal government that they are not doing enough to protect children. The research that led to this ministry decision alleged that approximately 140,000 children and youth experience mental disorders causing significant distress and impairing their functioning at home, at school, with peers, or in the community in B.C.

   MCDF news release did not indicate the age range of the children and youth who allegedly suffer mental disorders. Assuming that they are under 15 of age (for the sake of simplicity given the statistics above), the percentage of those who allegedly need mental health services is 21% (= 140,000/670,980). This means more than 1 out of 5 children need mental health services in B.C. We will leave it to our readers to decide whether they find this exceptionally high percentage believable. If this high ratio is indeed true, B.C. is certainly not the "best place on Earth" as the best place on Earth should not have generated so many children who need mental health services.

   As demonstrated in this case, the typical mechanism of how special interest groups who target government spending to market their services is as follows:

   • use a rare and extreme case to stir up attention, occupy the moral high ground and suggest the need to act;
   • hire some "experts" to conduct a review or an external organization to do some research to show objectiveness and impartiality;
   • allege a huge need to achieve certain objectives to justify the demand of various services, hence creating a rationale;
   • use the foregoing as an excuse to create or to increase a budget and implement the recommendations of the research to distribute wealth to special interest groups;
   • tell people how much government has accomplished to reap the political benefits.

While taxpayers and, at times, the alleged beneficiaries are victimized, this creates an all-win situation to those in government and service providers. This also explains that when more tax dollars dumped in, there will be more cases of "child abuse" in a money-driven market dictated by service providers and an ever accommodating government who lacks the political will to rectify the situation for obvious reasons. This works exceptionally well in an issue in which most people are unaware of the true nature and perceive that problems, if they ever exist, do not concern them. Be mindful that the total number of children removed and kept in government "care" amounts to a very small percentage of the total population in B.C. and only 23% [(474,895 x 2)/ 4,054,605] of British Columbians have children living in their households (based on 2006 Census data).